Our daughter sent me this link...and reminded me that we have a desire path outside our local library...

When I was young we used to play Monopoly..and somehow or other we radiated out from the board...our tummies on the carpet...over the years we created a circular desire path on the carpet..

Oh, on reflection perhaps not really a desire path...however I like to think of that worn 'n threadbare circle as a variation

I love that it has a name...what an exquisite idea..

Think of all the desire paths on the planet...I wonder if schools of fish create desire paths in the water _________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

I always find these frustrating - as one architect said, they are where the path ought to have gone if the designers had thought about it. There are pathways like this around Loughborough University and it is as if the 'officials' have decided that you 'will' walk on the paths provided... even tho' the paths made are for perfectly good reasons.

As a note-taker I use more direct pathways because I need to get from lecture to lecture in the least time possible. I have to be sitting at the front where I can see and hear clearly. If I get there late the seats may be taken so I take the quickest route (most direct) to get there. They are almost never the 'official' routes.

I admit I always used to think of them as animal paths because where I used to live there were these little trampled pathways through woodland where animals had gone. Some had plants growing over the top of them creating little tunnels but others would cross the human paths too. So maybe all animals create these pathways of desire.

I like the idea of pathways of desire in the sea and in waters everywhere... invisible pathways that are passed through rather than along..._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

Was there ever a path (in the dirt, water, air, spirit) that didn't start out with desire? Either through one person continually going a particular way or several people trying the same thing...This is a fun thing to think about. Maybe I need to revisit Poetics.

am imagining desire paths in the cosmos..._________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

gingerpale...the same has happened to our library desire path...a transformation...from dirt to concrete...further example of change..ah...tooooo late in the night for such talk...am as tired as can be...full to the brim with music..'n tired at the same time...

glass raised to the desire pathers_________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Why, beautiful Sussex of course! We lived on the Northern edge of town - a walk away from enclosed small meadows and woodland that you could get to if you knew the pathways. I learned them as a boy and loved the green shades where no officialdom had touched or tainted or 'planned' for. In the late 90s however, with the expansion of the town some of that land sadly got planned for. Some of it - at that time at least, remained tho'._________________Confusion comes fitted as standard.

We have one outside our building where people cross the road. I've been taking the proper route, only an extra 5 steps to the concrete path. Now I know it's called a desire path, I'll be taking it to. Love the name._________________Barbara

Calling in from LA, because I think that being a pedestrian around here is all about acquiring a "desire-path" ... uh... consciousness? Given that everything is scaled for cars, it's kind of catch as catch can when you're on foot. And, at first, it's incredibly daunting (after, say, one accidentally walks up onto a freeway ramp. or two.)... and then you begin to see all the ingenious ways people have of circumventing the mess.

And, oddly enough, this kind of behavior also seemed very prevalent when I was in Beijing. Pretty cool thing to see people climbing all over that ghastly Soviet-style architecture and making it thier own.

So maybe that kind of adaptability is one of those really neat bits of human nature? The ability to step off the path...

Joined: 29 Sep 2004Posts: 1196Location: buried under a pile of books somewhere in Adelaide, South Australia

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:17 am Post subject:

Greg's property is on quite a slope and is often visited by kangaroos and a neighbour's sheep, who have created tracks up and down the slope.

I always try to keep to those tracks when I walk there 'cos I figure those 4-legged creatures have been doing it for years and know what they're doing!_________________Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

shelledone...I love it to bits when a delurker delurks welcome welcome welcome..._________________"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson